The Pecks: How-to make your own decorative bird nests

Birds do it, beavers (and ducks, for that matter) do it and, although we have no idea whether educated fleas do it -- or how to determine how many years of school a flea has completed -- cute old couples do it, too.

We're talking about nesting, of course, and we'd qualify as one of those cute old couples if A) I were cute and B) Marcia were old.

That neither is true, however, doesn't dissuade us from this week's topic, which is nests.

Specifically, those crafted by sparrows and robins and jays and other winged creatures.

Yes, this column is, if not for them, at least about the birds.

Or, more specifically, bird nests.

Or even more specifically, FAKE bird nests, because it is absolutely not OK, under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, to collect REAL bird nests or bird feathers (are there other kinds of feathers?) or bird eggs. As we found out when we called our friends -- one was even a reader of our column, bless her heart -- at the Audubon Society the other day.

That doesn't mean you can't still walk through your yard and enjoy the nests, of course, but it does mean you can't touch them.

But, back to the birds.

My wife is absolutely in love with birds and for several years has stocked a medley of bird (and, let's be honest, squirrel) feeders off the back deck, where she could view a wide variety of birds from the comfort of bed each morning.

All was well and good, until the day she spied a large rat that was fond of birdseed, too, and had ambled up onto our deck, just outside our family room, for a bite to eat.

By the next day, the bird feeders were gone to new homes.

Then, there's my most recent encounter, with a very active woodpecker who decided the madrone logs that make up part of our backyard gazebo were meant to be, well, hole-y. First, we tried tying a trash bag around the hole, so he started a second one. A second bag, a third hole. This was going nowhere good. So, instead, we put some water sealant on the logs and, in case that wasn't enough, wrapped them from top to bottom in plastic cling wrap.

And then, when Marcia spied the bird working through the wrap, she added aluminum foil, too, which leaves her, as a landscape designer, with some explaining to do when she brings potential clients through the yard. She tries to pass it off as a modern art installation, but I think she just should tell them it keeps the wood fresher longer.

Regardless, given that there's unwrapped wood throughout the rest of the yard, the woodpecker seems to have finally taken the hint, so at least it worked without our having to resort to a big plastic owl to scare it off.

Then there's the bird lady of Beaverton, who, in case you were guessing, is not my wife. But it is my wife's story to tell.

Marcia:

I call my good friend Margie the bird lady of Beaverton (Dennis: I told you it wasn't Marcia) and her garden is, honestly, The Benson Hotel for birds. She's in part responsible for my passion about birds, and for anyone wondering just how much into birds she is, consider this:

When a bird made a nest on her front landing, she put notes to the UPS person -- and anyone else (including her husband) who needed to know -- to STAY OFF HER LANDING, so the birds would not be stressed. And the keep-off order was in effect until the eggs hatched and the babies flew off on their own.

And if you doubt the power of birds/nests to bring people together, consider the case of a 7-year-old who lived in our neighborhood. He was fascinated by three very beautifully tumbled glass eggs in a nest basket on our front porch and would come by every day to look at them. So, knowing that at some point they were going to wind up in his pockets, I asked him to help me by keeping an eye on them and making sure they were always safe in their nest.

It was heartwarming to watch him take the task so seriously, coming by every day to make sure they were safe. This went on for a year or so, until the day his family moved, which was also the day the "eggs" vanished. But you know, as much as I loved them, he loved them even more and just couldn't help himself.

I know the feeling, because it's the same way I feel about all things bird, including their nests. And if you follow these guidelines, you can, too. BUILD YOUR OWN NEST

1. Decide whether you want to put your nests in a basket, bowl, box or potted plant (I've even had one nested in the branches of an indoor ficus tree and have an old dynamite box (minus the dynamite) full of nests on the front porch.

2. You can either buy nests at craft stores or do what I do and make them yourself. I can't approach the perfection of a real nest, but I can give it my best shot, and it doesn't take long.

3. First, take a piece of foil 14 to 16 inches long and fold it into fourths. This should make the foil four layers thick.

4. Lay it over and mold it to the shape of an upside-down bowl. Start small. I use a little glass condiment bowl that's normally for cooking, or a baseball or softball will do.

5. Working in small patches, use hot-melt glue to adhere moss or twigs onto the foil.

6. After you glue moss to the outside of the nest, take it off the bowl (or baseball or softball) and repeat the process inside the nest.

7. Take scissors and trim the nest of any scraggly pieces of moss.

8. Birds make nests in many different sizes and materials, so don't be afraid to use leaves, moss, twigs, ornamental grasses, etc., which I collect on my daily walks.

9. If using a basket, fill the bottom with newspaper, packing peanuts or wadded-up grocery bags (Dennis definitely favors your using newspaper), so that the nests don't sit in the bottom of your container. When finished, you want the nests sitting level with the rim of your container.

10. Place the nests in the container. The moss, acorns, twigs, seedpods and other items I collected fill the spaces between the nests.

11. I put objects that remind me of eggs in the nests. Over the years, people have given me soap eggs, rocks that look like eggs, wooden eggs, even oak galls (the following spring the little bugs that made the galls hatched, and the house was filled with the little, well, buggers).

12. You can't beat the cost. You can get nests at craft stores or online for as little as 99 cents, and making your own is even cheaper, especially if you use things you've scavenged from nature to decorate them.

The project is as simple as thatMarcia Westcott Peck is a landscape designer (pecklandscape.com) and Dennis Peck is not. He is the editor of The Oregonian's Living section, which is a good thing for him, because if he actually had to use his hands for anything other than typing, it would not be pretty.